The Philpotts were 'good parents and looked after children'

Mick and Mairead Philpott were good parents who looked after their children
well and would never have intentionally harmed them, a judge was told today.

Mick Philpott and wife Mairead Photo: PA

By Nick Britten

2:28PM BST 03 Apr 2013

Making mitigating speeches ahead of the Philpotts and their friend Paul Mosley being sentenced for killing six children in a house fire in Derby last year, defence barristers for the pair said their love for their children was extremely strong.

Anthony Orchard QC, for Mick Philpott, said he was a "very good father" who never meant to hurt the youngsters, who died when set fire to the house in a botched attempt to gain revenge on his former mistress.

Mr Orchard told Nottingham Crown Court: "Despite Mr Philpott's faults he was a very good father and loved those children. All the witnesses, even Lisa Willis, agree on this.

"There's no evidence at any stage that he deliberately harmed any of them."

He said Philpott's bizarre behaviour at the hospital, in which police said he acting anything other than like a normal grieving parent, was "was consistent with extreme grief".

And he said that Philpott, 56, who had denied manslaughter, would have to live with the jury's verdicts, and the fact that they said he killed his children.

"He will have to live with the hatred and hostility of the press and the public for the rest of his life," he added.

He claimed that Philpott's conviction for attempting to murder a previous girlfriend, Kim Hill, by repeatedly stabbing her in 1978 was a "long time ago" and there was no evidence of anything like that being repeated.

However, Judge Mrs Justice Thirlwall, interrupted and told him: "There's been violence in every single relationship, has there not?"

Shaun Smith QC , for Mairead Philpott, said the children led happy lives despite the unusual circumstances in which they were brought up, living for a time with their mother, father and their father's girlfriend, Lisa Willis.

The prosecution's case was that the Philpotts set the fire in an attempt to frame Miss Willis and gain the upper hand in an ongoing custody battle involving her and Philpott's children, but that the blaze quickly spread out of control, killing the six children who were asleep upstairs. The Philpotts, along with Mosley, were convicted of manslaughter yesterday.

Mr Smith said there was no evidence "any of these children were in any sort of danger or peril prior to that night (of the fire) whatsoever."

He said: "They were well looked-after. They were well nourished. They were happy children."

Mr Smith added: "There were absolutely no problems as far as these children were concerned (with the living arrangements).

"No suggestion they were out on the street causing trouble."

Mr Smith went on: "The entirety of the evidence in this case is that Mairead Philpott was an extremely good mother to all 11 children.

"No one, we respectfully submit, can dispute the grief that she feels.

"Nobody can even understand it. It's palpable. It has been visible."

The barrister said his client watched last night's Panorama documentary about the case and thought the claim she spent little time with her son in hospital in Birmingham before he died from his injuries was an "outrageous suggestion" which has "filled her with more grief than one can imagine".

Mr Smith also rejected suggestions he said were made on TV last night by Mairead's sister that her grief was false.

He said: "Her grief is overwhelming."

Mr Smith said Mairead had spent 12-and-a-half of her 32 years with Philpott.

"There was only one dominant person in that relationship," he said. "She would do whatever he said, whatever he wanted."

He said that Mairead would have to cope with a number of permanent reminders of the "utter folly" of her desire to keep her husband loving her in the weeks and months leading up to the fire.

"She will be forever known as a child killer," Mr Smith said.

Her time in custody would also carry risks because the victims of her crime were children, he said.

When released from prison she would have no support network from family, and she would not be able to have children or be involved with any despite her great love for them.

"That will be her real sentence," he added.

The Philpotts and Mosley, 46, will be sentenced later this afternoon.

Philpott will also be sentenced for common assault after punching a motorist in the face following a road rage incident in 2011.

The court heard today that Philpott got involved in a row with another motorist who had pulled in front of him on a roundabout, tailing him, overtaking him before forcing the car to stop and punching the driver.

Aside from an attempted murder charge in 1978, for stabbing a former girlfriend, his only other significant conviction was when he headbutted a work colleague when he worked at a bakery in 1991.

He admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was given a conditional discharge but was told to pay compensation and costs.

The court also heard Philpott accepted a caution in 2010 when police were called to the house when he slapped Mairead twice in the face and dragged her outside.